Baker Mayfield isn’t satisfied with just one playoff appearance
The Cleveland Browns have made the playoffs for the first time since 2002, and for quarterback Baker Mayfield, the team’s season-ending victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers is the start of a new era for Browns football.
In his postgame interview with CBS’s Evan Washburn, Mayfield talked about how the group has begun to achieve their goal of resetting the standard in Cleveland, and how things must be different from now on.
Mayfield led the Browns to an 11-5 record this season and had a blistering second half of the season, throwing 16 touchdowns and just two interceptions since Week 7. He’s been perhaps the single biggest reason why Cleveland is back in the playoffs, even with as good a job as rookie head coach Kevin Stefanski has done.
“There’s a new standard here, and it needs to keep that way.”
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) January 3, 2021
Baker Mayfield expects the @Browns to be in the playoffs for the long haul, not just this season. (@EvanWashburn) pic.twitter.com/RNaQQljYsH
Mayfield is hands-down the best quarterback the team has had since the return in 1999, and while some may insinuate the Browns should move on, Mayfield is a franchise QB, and will be Cleveland’s starter for a very long time.
At the 2018 NFL Combine, Mayfield answered a question about the Browns haplessness with “If there’s anyone who would turn that franchise around, it’d be me”. The former college walk-on has been doubted at every step of his football career, yet he’s always found success, even with the NFL’s worst franchise of the past 20-plus years.
Three years after finishing a stretch of 1-31, Cleveland is back in the playoffs for the first time in 18 years. The road was long, bumpy, and painful, but the turnaround is finally in full effect, and if Mayfield has anything to say about it, this will be only the first of many playoff appearances.